St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-03
RECoNsIDERED IT'S ACTION.
Cleveland Not to Lay Corner
Stone in Chicago.

Stone in Chicago.
Special to the Globe.
CHICAGO, Oct. 2.-As a part of the
programme on the occasion of the visit
of President Cleveland to this city next
Wednesday it was proposed to have him
lay the corner stone of the splendid
Auditorium building. The labor organ
lZationS objected to this on the ground
that non-union men were employed in
the construction of the building, and
declared they should not take part in
the parade on Wednesday if the pro-
posed corner StOne-laying was carried
out. The committee of arrangements,
alarmed at the threats of the labor Or
CARNATIONS, reconsidered its action, and
the president will not be asked to assist
at the corner stone ceremony. This de-
cISlOn of the committee has been re-
celved by the leading papers of the city
with an emphatic protest. The Journal
says:
The objections that were made to the pro-
position that the president should be asked
to lay the corner stone of this edifice were
unfounded. The cash that it will cost to
erect the building goes into the pocket of
labor. Such enterprises rebound to the ad
vantage OF labor, and it would have been ap-
proprlate that the president of the whole
people, in laying the corner stone of such
structure, should honor labor and honor the
work of its hand.
The Herald has strong editorial on
the subject. 1t declars that
The Auditorium is notable structure of
quasl-publlc character. 1t will be grand
feature OF Chicago architecture, erected at
private cost, but mainly devoted to public
uses. 1t is not designed as means of
money gathering, and the in
Yes:tors do not hope for dividends.
IL is not improbable that the hall will be
ready for next years national conventions,
and that these, as well as other great assem-
blages destined to become historical will
meet within ltsswalls. There was no impropri-
ETY., therefore, in asking the chief magistrate
OF the country, on the occasion of his visit to
Chlcago to lay the cornerstone of the walls
that are now rising in colossal grandeur. The
directors of the Auditorium company are in
n0Wlse responsible for the character of the
aftllatIons of the craftsmen engaged upon
the structure. They invited proposals for
the work and let the same to contractors.
whose employment of men the directors cam
not control.
After speaking of the threat of the
labor organizations not to parade, the
Herald says:
Under this implied threat the committee
appears to have abandoned a feature pre-
v1ously determined on, and thus to have en-.
barrassed the president, whose consent to lay
the stone was obtained. and to have signified
lts own subserVlency to dictatiOn which
was as unwarranted as it was humiliating.
The right of labor or any other organiza-
ton to decline participation in parade can
not be questioned. 1t may, if it choose. as
sign reasons for its refusal. but, as it has no
right of command, the committee which. by
reason of an impertinent protest. abandons
definite programme makes decidedly a mis-
take. 1t is not too late to reconsider the ac-
ton which impugns the courage and good
sense of the committee of arrangement and
in effect playS battledOre and Shuttlonook
with the president, sending him from pillar